Lab Building (née Hotel Hampshire) | 34-40 Hampshire St. | Cambridge

6/2: Continues to advance at rip-the-bandaid-off speed. They have built another CMU structure at far left. That answers my question of what the overhanging roofline steel was going to attach to on that side.

fhmp-5-1.jpg
 
bigpicture7 said:
6/2: Continues to advance at rip-the-bandaid-off speed. They have built another CMU structure at far left. That answers my question of what the overhanging roofline steel was going to attach to on that side.

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Oof, that really sucks for the rooms that have windows immediately abutting that CMU wall. There's what, a foot or two of clearance at most?

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Is this a case of it looks a lot smaller than it actually is or is this thing absolutely tiny?
 
It is tiny compared to the enormous floor plates that most labs around, and the building is deliberately trying not to block the windows of the adjacent offices.

I shot the photo from the elevated walkway in front of Mamaleh’s, which may be playing with the perspective a bit.
 
It's not a bad building above the first floor. However, that first level, street interaction, is truly dismal. It does absolutely nothing to activate the street.
 
Java King said:
It's not a bad building above the first floor. However, that first level, street interaction, is truly dismal. It does absolutely nothing to activate the street.
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Yeah, if they were really intent on putting a lab on a footprint this small, they should have cut a deal with the neighboring building to acquire some groundfloor space there for loading dock/back of house purposes. Squeezing that stuff on the minimal ground level of this new one is pretty ridiculous, given it is a high traffic/high pedestrian corner. Supposedly this whole thing was built under as-of-right zoning, so it didn't need to go through the type of review that likely would have quashed this sort of ground level design. They did seemingly use some nice stone for the ground level exterior (which doesn't show in my distant nighttime photo; it is not concrete or cinder block as it might appear from a distance), but that doesn't overcome the sheer blankness of it.
 
With vacancy rates as they are and a ton of new capacity (primary and secondary) hitting the market, my guess is "no science" for at least a little while.
 
Ruairi said:
what idiot gave permission for this?
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No one, actually. It was built as-of-right. Following a longwinded planning board approval process for the Hotel (which required a formal review), it was instead abruptly pivoted to this lab that (as I understand) fit within the constraints of as-of-right for the parcel.
 
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